German and Romance civility in contact
Retracing Early Modern European dynamics of polite address through historical foreign language manuals
In this paper, I argue for a systematic study of the role that language contact has played in the development of
German, French, Italian and Spanish address systems. While the current state of research clearly points to contact-induced changes
in Early Modern European polite address, some important desiderata concerning the precise direction, nature and scope of contact
influences remain. Against this background, I present historical foreign language manuals as a promising source for the
comparative study of historical European address practices and their development. Through an explorative analysis of metapragmatic
comments and model dialogues in selected foreign language manuals, the increasingly dynamic pressures experienced by interlocutors
both to distance themselves from one another and to express solidarity come to light, as multi-level address systems emerge and
mixed styles of address gain in importance.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Contact-induced changes of forms of address in Early Modern Europe: Current state of research
- 2.1Theoretical background
- 2.2Romance linguistics
- 2.3Linguistic typology
- 3.Some critical remarks
- 3.1On the chronology and direction of contact influences
- 3.2On the nature and scope of contact influences
- 4.Towards a comprehensive account of Early Modern contact-induced changes in forms of address
- 4.1Early Modern foreign language manuals
- 4.2Metapragmatic insights
- 4.3Examining socio-pragmatic variation and change through model dialogues
- 5.Conclusion
- Acknowledgments
-
Sources
-
References
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Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Kádár, Dániel Z., Gudrun Held & Annick Paternoster
2023.
Introduction.
Journal of Historical Pragmatics 24:1
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